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Liberia: Let UN prosecute Taylor

March 18, 2006|By Items compiled from Tribune news services.

AFRICA — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Friday she wants ex-president Charles Taylor handed over to a war crimes tribunal for prosecution for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war, with the agreement of African leaders.

Sirleaf told the UN Security Council that Liberia "is determined to address issues from our painful past ... so that the country can move ahead."

Taylor was given asylum in Nigeria to help end Liberia's civil war and Sirleaf said she and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo agreed at a recent meeting to seek African leaders' views before any hand-over.

Taylor has lived in exile in Nigeria since being forced from power under a peace deal brokered in 2003.